Right, to fill in a little bit of back story (not too much to bore you). Recently made redundant from BT and as such have no job currently and also seem to be having little luck in my CV being filed in a place other than the low profile circular filing system. I want to go for a job in some kind of techy respect (think BOFH minus the cattleprod and sarcasm//ICT tech in a school) problem lies in the fact I don't feel I have any formal qualifications or experience to bring to the table as it were. Whilst school IT tech work is mostly keeping the AD ticking over, checking proxy cache logs and a fair bit of hardware stuff I'm not entirely sure how to proceed. My education level for IT stuff is limited to A Level Computing (Grade D ) and self taught, which while it may be enough for me to know what I'm doing, it doesn't prove it. Previous jobs are 10months at BT as an Emergency Operator/Operator Services Advisor/Nuisance Calls Advisor, before that it's a string of pub jobs, before that it's about 9 months part time at Maplins while at 6th form. Considering doing the A+ CompTIA thing as it seems to be an accepted thing that most people have just to prove they're not going to electrocute themselves. Plus the exams are rather cheap at £114 max each exam (2 exams) of which I may be able to get the Jobcentre to help towards the cost of them. Then there's the MCSE/MCP option, obviously I can only really afford to do one part of the MCSE and that'd be an MCP in effect. It's all boiling down to money. If anyone has got any advice whatsoever for me I'd be deeply grateful as being on the dole is really getting my back up each and every day so far. (extra thing, I have found an ICT Admin job at a school in my area but I don't know if I should just apply for it blag the interview and hope for the best or do a cert or 25 first..)
I presume you mean the telecoms company rather than Bit-tech. Also "ICT" at GCSE/A-Level sucks IMO, completely irrelevant to anything other than a general office job. Also the GCSE papers are the most incomprehensible ever written. It's not a terrible course per se, but it really needs it's name changed and the exam should be revised completely In all honesty what you taught yourself in however short period of time is probably 10x more usefull than that A-Level. If the qualifications seem to focus on the aspects you know then I say go for it and get the rewards from what you've learned etra-curricularly.
If you've got no IT Qualiications I would look at MCDST before MCSE, your unlikely to get a Sys Admin role without any experience, but a Desktop job you would if you can prove you know your stuff.
I managed to blag it for 7 years before even getting any IT qualifications (not even a GCSE in IT), and then when I decided to get some, I had to start on the bottom of the rung due to pre-requisite qualificaitons (Cisco ... damn tye-in for extra money sham grumble grumble). In short, if you think you can do the job, and more importantly, you think you can show you can do the job, why wait? Sure, go ahead and book the A+ exam, hell, tell them that in your interview even. But make it look like you're doing it as a stepping stone because you're ready to start biting at the next step of stuff, not because you're not sure how to prove you already know it Couple years down the line you'll look down on the A+ like its a blot on your CV, and want to hide it
Just to clarify as it seems "Ending Credits" seems to have gotten the wrong end of the stick, I did a Computing A Level not ICT. Major difference being that in ICT they term a kilobyte as 1000 bytes exactly. (which pissed me off to a great extent and resulted in me having several major winges) I will look into the MCDST but as I said it boils down to money and what the jobcentre will actually pay for (and they will pay for the A+ potentially Network+ too) It's just kinda gutting at the moment knowing I can do the job but that bits of paper hold me back. (considering that I put together various server client setups together and played with AD and exchange etc for funsies when i was 15-18 and yes it all worked.) edit: @Zoon: I do realise that pretty much anything I do now I'll want to expunge from my CV and disown it like a promiscuous daughter in a couple of years, but for the time being I just need something to get me through the door and not straight back through it. I view the A+ as simply proof you're not gonna shock yourself when you're sorting something out edit 2: @Ending Cred's: Yes I did mean British Telecom..
You sir, have a glorious way with words! From the experience you state, looks like you would ace the A+ ... so consider the N+ exam as well while you're trying to get blood from a stone AKA the job centre.
Thank you! At the moment with the Job Centre, there's been a command from upon high that there's too many people on the dole, as such they're allowing Advisors to authorize course payment up to £300 (which considering a+ is £114x2 =£228 plus a book to cover the ground you're up to your limit if not over) and then after that you can book yourself on some kind of NVQ level thing for free (one i've seen advertises being 2 core elements of an MCSE) It's just getting kinda complicated with knowing I know what I know, but just not being able to prove it in the form of a grand and a half worth of paper with a nice little hologram on it.
Is the school admin job you are looking at an ICT management or ICT technician position? If it is a technician position then don't worry about certs - just apply. Write a decent cover letter explaining the sorts things you will inevitably have fixed for friends and family with computers, and the technologies you are familiar with. Dig around the county council education website looking for a job spec for the position, if you can't find one email the school and request it. I think schools are required to publish these and knowing exactly what they are looking for will make getting your application to the top of the pile a lot easier. I'm a technician at a school at the moment, and the level of knowledge required to be able to get on with the job is pretty minimal. Most of the candidates are unlikely to have much in the way of IT skills beyond installing software on Windows and changing print cartridges. If you can claim familiarity with Active Directory and some kind of commercial backup utility (or ntbackup if you've not used anything else) you will almost certainly be interviewed. If you haven't actually used AD/Group Policy before, mention them anyway to make it clear you at least know what they are - a lot of applicants won't. Your Linux skills should count for something as evidence that you know what you're doing, even though they probably won't have many *nix systems (possibly a proxy running Squid, but more than that is unlikely unless the previous admin was a Linux fan). Judging by your forum posts you easily have the technical skills. Coming across as friendly and enthusiastic in the interview will count more for you than certs. If you come across as someone who the students and teachers will find approachable, and can convince the ICT manager that you aren't going to start pulling power cables out the back of servers, they are quite likely to overlook the lack of formal qualifications. Be ready to explain why an A-Level computing D doesn't mean you're not excellent at IT Support. They probably won't be aware that it doesn't have much relevance to fixing the things, and explaining this without appearing disparaging of curriculum-based education will take some care. If the position is for an ICT manager I would be surprised if they hired anyone without a few years admin experience, as there is much more opportunity to screw things up. If it is for a Manager position apply anyway - schools have to publicly advertise all positions, even if they have already decided to promote an existing member of staff for the position (if the only place the job is advertised is the county council jobs page this may well be the case). If they are promoting an existing technician they might offer you the opening position and not bother to advertise it in the papers.
You worked for BT and are not based in India? Wow is that a first? Anyhow, I nearly got a job in a school doing what you mentioned through a friend but I turned it down. I've a Foundation degree in computing but Networking was by far my worst subject (I hated it). I just winged it through the interviews and was ok. I say blag it and see where it gets you, at least its your foot in the door.
From what I've read of the job spec they're after a 2nd ICT technician. for the benifit of people wanting to help here's the bulk of the ad.
